records, and giving much information new to many of us.

At this meeting an appeal was read from Miss Louise H. Putnam, of the Denison House, for money and books for the Ellis Memorial in South Boston. This is a memorial to the late Rufus Ellis of the First Church, Boston, and is to take the form of a reading-room in the tenement-house district. The Alliance will send a donation of books, and they also sent $5 to Green Harbor and $1 to the New England Associate Alliance.

The Sewing Circle met as usual on the first Wednesday. A bountiful supper was provided, after which the company adjourned to Highland Hall for the entertainment of the evening, which consisted of two dramatic performances, one "Pauline Pavlovna," by T. B. Aldrich, and an amusing farce, "The Bicylers." The parts in both were well sustained, and the performers heartily encored. Two violin solos were given during the intermission by one of the young girls of the society.

On January 20 the Unitarian Club discussed "The Aim and Object of the Modern Novel." Papers were read on "The History of the Novel," "Incentive or Object," and criticisms on more recent novels. A lively discussion followed these papers, presenting widely different opinions on the novel. The annual ladies' night of the club was held this year in Highland Hall. The members and their friends to the number of one hun

dred and fifty enjoyed a social half-hour before the dinner. The subject for the evening was "The Responsibility of Pastor and Laymen." The president, Mr. Charles F. Koopman, Jr., made a short address of welcome, and spoke of the prosperous year which the club had passed, and then introduced the speakers of the evening, Rev. Samuel R. Fuller, Rev. Daniel M. Wilson, and Mr. George W. Stone, treasurer of the American Unitarian Association. Rev. Frank W. Pratt of Walpole, N.H., the former pastor of the church, was present, and made a short address.

Ladies' night has become one of the institutions of the club, and the increasing attendance from year to year attests to its popularity.

Woburn, Mass.-Our minister, Rev. H. C. Parker, has been giving this winter a series of most interesting Sunday morning sermons on the Beatitudes. Our people seem exceedingly interested in these sermons, and if the impressions they give sink deep enough into the hearts of the congregation they must be a great power for good. Twice each month we have had evening lectures by ministers from other churches of the liberal religion.

Under the auspices of the "Friday Night Club," a non-sectarian club organized in our church by a former pastor ten years ago, several social affairs have been arranged, and have added materially to the social life of the city as well as of the church. This club opened the season by celebrating its tenth anniversary with a very nice banquet, after-dinner speeches, etc. This proved an evening of rare entertainment, and certainly marked an epoch in its career. A chafing-dish supper was another entertainment planned and successfully carried out by this club; and still later they gave a very acceptable art exhibition. It is a live institution, and a very helpful adjunct to the church.

A Branch of the Women's Alliance has been formed in connection with the Ladies' Charitable Society. At the regular monthly meetings of this organization we have very interesting papers by ladies from other Branches which attract and interest all who hear them. Quite an interest in this work has been aroused among our members.

Wolfeboro, N.H. - The church in

Wolfeboro, the services of which have been continued by the help of lay services, will intendent visited the church a week ago now enjoy regular preaching. The superSunday, holding a quite satisfactory meeting. Arrangements were made for the coming of Mr. Andrew Hahn, late of the Harvard Divinity School. He will preach for a Sunday or two, and it is hoped may be willing to accept the pastorate.

The

Worcester League. February meeting of the Worcester League of Unitarian Women was held on the 17th of the month, in the parlors of the First Parish Church, Mrs. Calvin Stebbins in the chair. After the secretary's report, the business of the day was taken up, a letter of thanks for a contribution being read from the New England Associate Alliance, and a vote taken by the league to assist in the work of the Cheerful Letter. In behalf of the Current Events Committee, a most interesting paper descriptive of the plan and work of Charlesbank was given, followed by two others, on the subject of "Christianity," the first considering "Christianity as Christ preached it," and the second, "Christianity of To-day.' Both were suggestive, thoughtful, and well presented. A collection was taken for one of the local charities.

It is not the goal, but the course, which makes us happy.— Jean Paul Richter.

Do not dare to live without some clear intention toward which your living shall be bent. Mean to be something with all your might. Phillips Brooks.

Volume XII.

Number 4.

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: the grass withereth, the flower fadeth; because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tid.

:

ings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God! Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd, he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.

Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor hath taught him? With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt

To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him? The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains. He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, that shall not be moved. Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in that bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble. To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.

Why sayest thou, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God? Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might, he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk,

and not faint.

one awakes with cool brow: then rest returns, hope revives. Dr. Lyman Abbott suggests that this fortieth chapter of Isaiah proclaims such an awaking in the life history of the Hebrew nation.

At Solomon's death civil war tore the little kingdom in two. Then the people of Israel became the prey of surrounding nations; and finally Jerusalem was seized, the temple destroyed, a few men of high position were killed, and the people themselves bodily carried off into slavery in Babylonia,

"How art thou fallen from heaven, O morning star! Son of the dawn, how art thou cast down to the earth!"

There in irksome slavery lay all that was left of the nation of Israel,-that nation for whom Moses had planned and borne so much, Joshua fought so bravely, and which had been lifted to such power and honor by David!

It was in a long racking painful fever Israel lay thus enslaved by Babylon, until that morning came at last, when the agony and terror and pain subsided, and there arose from among the still sorrowing and oppressed and burden-bearing people one upon whose face shone a light as of a great joy. This man was Isaiah.

He felt that the fever had spent its force. He felt that the moral and religious degradation into which these Israelites had fallen had been at last dissolved, and new life, new strength, new hope, was shining with steady warming glow for their regeneration.

But what could he do? These people were in absolute slavery. What possible hope could they have? or what means were open for the regaining of their freedom, or even the alleviation of their distresses?

Apparently, Israel was crushed for ever. And yet Isaiah must have remembered the words of the old Hebrew covenant: "I am the Lord thy God who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage"; and he repeated the psalm of the great David: "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want"; and he repeated the great temple prayer that so many hallowed lips had uttered within the marble sanctuary of Jerusalem, the holy city: "O Lord, my God, hearken unto the cry and to the prayer which I, thy servant, prayeth

before thee this day. When thy people Israel be hurt and smitten down, if they turn to thee, and pray to thee, then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling-place, and bring thy people once more into the land which thou gavest unto their fathers."

Repeating such great words of trust and faith, Isaiah's heart stirred and quickened within him. He could not see the way out of captivity. He could not tell how the bonds might be broken. Oppression seemed to sit right heavily indeed upon crushed and fettered Israel.

But the Eternal remained! And could not be removed. He suddenly felt as many a striving hero since has felt, as Paul felt when he wrote, "All things are possible to God." And Isaiah became a prophet, a teacher, a proclaimer, a voice in the wilderness.

He could not rule or give laws, or organize or train the people in the use of arms or strategies of war, he could not lift their physical burdens from them, he could not make the daily toil less hard. He could only think of one thing he could possibly do. Slave as he was, ignorant, oppressed, down-trodden, he could at least do this, make himself a herald of the living God. No one could prevent that. He would breathe into the closed ears of his slave-brethren the glorious words, "Thy God liveth." He would let that inspiration, like spring breezes upon the willow branches bending over distant Jordan, work out its own blossoming.

He would simply be a comforter,—to cheer the depressed, to say to the disheartened, "Be of good courage," to revive faith and implant hope, to strengthen the weak and uphold the feeble, to say to them that were of fearful heart, "Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come; he will come and save you."

Thus Isaiah brought forth this famous chapter: "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and tell her that there shall be an end to all slavery, that she shall receive at the Lord's hand double for all her sufferings." "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain made low; the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places smooth. Yes, the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, shall be made known to us: we shall all see it together."

But the people cry, "All flesh is grass, and the goodliness thereof is but as the flower of the field: the grass withereth, the flower fadeth; and surely the people are but as the grass." And Isaiah replies.

Yes, the grass withereth and the flower fadeth; but the word of our God, that stands forever. Oh, if you could only realize this. Come! he cries, come! If there is any one who believes this, any one who hears these glad tidings, let him lift up his voice and tell it to others, let him lift it up and not be afraid, let him declare to all the people wherever and whenever he can: "Behold, your God liveth. He will come. He will yet feed his flock like a shepherd, he will gather the little ones in his arms and carry the weak ones in his bosom." Then he gives that magnificent description of the greatness of Jehovah. He does this because, in the confused minds of these distracted Hebrews, the mistaken notion has prevailed that Jehovah is only another of these many heathen images.

No, says Isaiah, every one here thinks to have an idol for a god: the rich have them in precious stones, and even the poorest make one out of a bit of hard wood. But you Hebrews, don't you be led into such delusion as that: it is through that idolatry you have come to despise all religion as a mere sham, that you have lost courage.

But, behold! our God is real, living, and eternal. All this idolatry is nothing to him. If you were to take the whole mighty forest of Lebanon and burn it up at one time, be wouldn't accept it as an offering. If you were to offer up all the wild beasts that roam in that forest all at once in one mighty sacrifice, it would be only absurdity to God.

No all the princes and all the nations in the world are as dust upon his balance.

"Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, is never weary, and never forgetteth, and never forsaketh? He gives power to the weak. They that trust in him shall mount up with the strong wings of eagles."

That was what Isaiah tried to tell his unhappy countrymen. It was a great message. It did a marvellous work. It touched the secret distress of the people. They had lost faith and hope. Isaiah

turned them again to the Eternal God, and they were comforted. As the herald of this living faith, Isaiah became the savior of his race. So deeply did his grand words move them that they "helped every one his neighbor, and every one his brother, and each said to each: Be of good cheer. Be not dismayed. Thy God is with thee. He will strengthen thee. He will uphold thee; yea, with his right hand of righteousness." So that when, in the next generation of Israelites, an opportunity of return to Palestine came, this remnant of slaves had courage and hope and faith enough to regain their freedom, rebuild the temple, and re-establish their religion.

Nor was it to his own Hebrew people only that Isaiah gave the inspiration of his glad tidings. And how many, many sorrow-sinking, silent souls, borne down by the weight of their own burdens, distracted, as the Israelites were, by the surrounding worship of Mammon, of materialism, of fashion and pleasure, and passing earthly things, losing their sense of faith, have been comforted by this great chapter, finding in it the breath of divine life which saved their souls!

[April

"A weight of coming trial which my soul is braced to bear,

For God and duty call me to a path that leadsah, where?

I know not what may meet me on that dim and thorny way;

Enough that He hath spoken in my heart, and I obey.

"Yet, O ye blessed ones who kneel together in the shrine,

Who faint beneath no secret weight of anguish such as mine,

Forgive that on the verge of all my spirit dreads, alone,

Without one human voice to cheer, I falter here, and moan!

"Ye cannot guess the yearning to be one with you in praise,

With heart set free from secret pain in faith that heart to raise;

To be the humblest one who at yon altar kneels Nor linger here, shut out by bars unseen that to-day,

close the way.